The Egg gets the larger share of my computer related money ... maybe 65%. (B&H gets about 90% of my photography money but that's a whole different category). I have a MicroCenter about 5 miles away from home, so that's convenient for stuff I need in a hurry or when fixing someone else's machine who needs something in a hurry. I also like to peruse their circulars which they send out at least once a month.

I've also found some good deals on Buy.com, eWiz, & MWave.com. Also, if you know what your looking for you can get some hard to find items and / or larger quantities of things from eBay. eWiz seems to have the best processor prices & lately, has even done well in after-market video coolers such as those by Zalman. MWave is good sometimes for specific items in a price shop. Buy.com gets about 50% of my monitor money. They also had some excellent deals this spring on quality power supplies.

I was never a big fan of CompUsa, before or after they bought & destroyed that other store mentioned...They never seemed to carry anything but low to mid-level merchandise, priced above what I'd pay for quality. And it might just be my location, but the help always seemed a bit arrogant & prone to push you toward whatever they had a lot of...regardless of what you asked for.

Dell is OK, and a good place to buy whole systems, but after fixing a lot of their stuff and working around their unique designs to upgrade things for friends & family, I find their proprietary stuff to be troublesome...at least for someone who is comfortable assembling & rebuilding workstations & laptops. I'd usually rather choose my own brand of component, but more importantly, I'd rather put together a system I know can be repaired and enhanced down the road with standard components. I know that doesn't matter to most folks.

Interesting footnote...Dell supports their direct business customers with US call centers...but sends individual customers over to Mumbai. The plain & simple on that is that business pays for support, while Mom & Pop don't like to pay for anything.

My favorite business laptop comes from HP & IBM/Lenavo. They are just good working & sturdy & straightforward. Guess I like the HP's more since they had a history of sourcing motherboards from Asus, another of my favorites...but the t-pads are great business boxes too.

Sorry for the bump, but I thought I'd put up this address for some price searching...

I have a custom builder for my workstations, so the big ticket items come from him. Just bought a custom Sager laptop for NLE work, because they offered a lot more than the usual suspects, Sony, HP, Toshiba and Dell could/would offer. Their machine was not cheap, but no one else could come close, and this one is wonderfully built, with only one glitch - a multi-drive that went South, but was replaced in days with free shipping both ways.

I usually head to Fry's (since CompUSA closed) for local purchases, and NewEgg for mail-order items.

There are a few other suppliers for individual things: FireWire Direct, SuperMedia Store (for media) and some others.

I seldom really shop for price, but use my regular suppliers, because I want service. Plus, most have good prices, though maybe not the ultimate price. I want to know that if they say my order will ship on Wednesday 07/08, it will ship on Wednesday 07/08, and not Wednesday ?/09.

Here goes my first muvipix post. At least if I screw up here I can learn why and get to the tech stuff better prepared.

My "other" is, of all places, Walmart; either at a store or on-line. The prices are usually competitive and you can't beat the 90 day return policy. Also use them for home theater and digital cameras when possible for the same reason. You also save shipping on any returns by taking even on-line orders back to the local store.

I do my research, then I troll eBay...I have also bought from some specialist sites for video equipment et al.

I often find what I want on a commercial site then I get a hardly used one on eBay, CHEAP.There are many people out there that need the cash fast.The key being, know your prices and do your research regarding what you need and how many miles on it.

TigerDirect and CompUSA are now sister companies. Get the same great deals on PCs, Electronics, and Components that made TigerDirect one of the world's Top Online Retailers at your local TigerDirect or CompUSA store. Now serving customers with 23 stores in Florida, Texas, North Carolina and Illinois.

Next month when I visit my brother in Orlando we plan to buy a new flat panel monitor for him. Since I do prefer to see a monitor display both graphics and text before purchasing it, I hope that one of their two Orlando area stores will have a good selection of monitors on display.

Muvipix is now a B&H and NewEgg Affiliate That means that we can earn commissions on purchases you make online just by clicking on a link found herehttp://www.chuckengels.com

We have been an Amazon affiliate for a long time, you will find the amazon links at chuckengels.com and on the Muvipix Resources page We are also now an Adobe affiliate and purchasing upgrades or other software from the link at chuckengels.com will give Muvipix some additional revenue.

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Purchasing products from our merchants affiliates costs you nothing extra, in fact sometimes you can get even better discounts.We will be announcing special deals and great discounts on a separate page here at Muvipix soon, stay tuned